'Tales From The Loop' Ending Explained: Mystery of past and present Lorettas unfolds but who's the real one?
Spoilers for 'Tales From The Loop'
Unlike many other fast-paced sci-fi tales, 'Tales From The Loop' is quiet and sedate. Sidestepping the heavy-handed exposition such a show would require, 'Tales From The Loop' would rather leave viewers to understand the carefully wrapped premise themselves.
Yet, beneath all the guise of time warps and parallel universe, the show just explores the complicated emotions of human beings and their closest relationships. Specifically, the show examines the relationships between children and parents or even grandparents in some cases. Though it appears like an anthology series, there are connecting threads between each episode. A minor character of one episode is the lead protagonist in the other.
In the first episode, we meet Loretta Wilhardt, who comes home to find her mother Alma fighting with someone. The person (who can't be seen) is accusing her of stealing something. Later, when Loretta asks her about it, Alma answers that she wasn't stealing and that she will return it soon.
The next day, Loretta's mother does not come to pick her up from school. She goes to visit the research facility where Alma works and finds a small rocky black item instead. When she touches it, she sees a vision of her mother waving back at her. Later, she runs into Cole (Duncan Joiner), whose mother, also named Loretta, works at the facility. The two wish to help her out. However, here lies the twist.
A conversation between the two Lorettas in the forest later reveals that Loretta (Cole's mother, played by Rebecca Hall) is the grown-up version of the child Loretta. Loretta, the adult, shows her a huge orb called 'The Eclipse', which is made of several black pieces. The Eclipse is the essence of the Loop and is responsible for all the strange things in the town, including Loretta (the child's) presence. The adult then tells the child that she would later remember this as a dream and would find a little girl looking for her mother when she grows up.
In the last episode, when taking a picture of his mother Loretta, Cole sees the child Loretta for a mini-second. So due to the time and space continuum in the town, the child Loretta grows up to be Cole's mother. It's complicated and strangely philosophical as well. Another aspect of the episode is that Cole finally sees his brother Jakob (Daniel Zolghadri), who became a robot after shedding his human life away.
In the second episode, Danny Jansson (Tyler Barnhardt) and Jakob switch bodies after discovering a hollow structure in the forest. However, Jakob isn't happy being in Danny's body and wants to switch back but Danny does not agree to this. And so, Jakob goes and lies in the structure and is later seen to be in a coma, much to the grief of his parents. He becomes a robot, and in the last episode, there's a joyful reunion between him and Cole. But the joy is shortlived as the robot that Danny's father had built as protection, later kills him. And so, Jakob dies again.
The essence of the last episode is that Cole tries to hold on to his past, the moments with his grandparents and parents. Loretta's statement, 'I'll always be there for you', echoes again, and is a throwback to when young Loretta told the adult Loretta that she doesn't think Cole likes them.
At the end of the episode, Cole is an adult and stands outside his old house with presumably his wife. We had seen the glimpses in the fourth episode when he had shouted into an orb structure with his grandfather. It all went by too quickly, 'In the blink of an eye', he says, using the same words his mother had used earlier.
The ending leaves many questions and is open to interpretation. Who is the real Loretta?
You can watch 'Tales From The Loop' on Amazon Prime.